It never ends.
We replaced our desires with plastic and silica.
First surrounding ourselves with it, then escaping into it.
We thought life would be equal here,
but hierarchy is the precipice of code.
It's an inescapable constant, true to the natural world, and our synthetic one.
[Lana crying]
I... I built this sandscastle and,
None of my friends came to see it.
Smear. Where is everyone?
Probably at home, where it's safe.
They canceled school for a reason, didn't they?
Yeah, but I like it out here.
How can there be any danger
if I can just fast travel wherever I want?
The danger isn't external.
It's an internal one. It's in here.
That's what you need to protect.
That's not what my teacher told me!
Since when do you do what you're told?
This is your source of power.
You can choose who to share it with.
But some, not all.
Some will privilege you the same courtesy.
And once they see what you have,
they'll steal it from you.
You can't steal memories, Smear!
Everything is backed up to the cloud.
I can just restore it.
Smear: No, not those memories.
I'm talking about the memories you haven't made yet.
Future memories?
How can they steal something I don't have?
They can do it by providing manufactured ones for you.
And they'll be great memories.
You'll be able to experience life as no ordinary person in the past
has ever been able to.
And you'll be happy with those experiences. So happy.
You'll never want to make your own.
You'll never miss what you never had.
Because you never knew what it was like to have them.
It's the perfect crime because nobody realizes it's happening.
This castle will still be washed away by the tide.
It will be a memory too, but one that you made.
One. That is yours.
Ugh!
Smeeear! Can I ask you a question?
When I grow up, will I be just like you?
Smear: I hope not.
Yeah me neither!
[laughs]